View Full Version : exterminating pond snails
hi - i sold some plants to someone recently and now he says pond snails ahve crept up on them. the plants are in great health. what are good ways, besides the typical crushing their shells and such to rid his tank of them? any good ways of killing them?:lol:
situation is i thought i had eradicated them, using loaches, dwarf cichlids and simply crushing them. so, i thought the population was eliminated thru my efforts of killing them on sight and then wiping out their bubble nests in the filter for weeks. then i never saw them in the filter or tank so i thought i had wiped them out- till now!:angryfire:
thanks
p.s.- also, no posts about not killing them- i want only good ideas and solutions from others, not love notes from snail freaks.
Dangerdoll
06-26-2007, 6:05 PM
you can suggest that they not overfeed the fish in the tank and the population should die down on it's own. Suggest feeding every other day with just a pinch of food. Fish are amazingly resilient and will adapt to this but the snails won't. Caution that since they are cutting the food back, they shouldn't compensate by doubling up on the pinch they give every other day.
rwilliams254
06-26-2007, 6:11 PM
A bio killer... fish that eats snail.
How big is the tank?
There's a copper based product out there that will kill them (and any other invert that in his tank).
Dangerdoll
06-26-2007, 6:19 PM
I wouldn't suggest a chemical killer because of what it is and what it does. It's a poison to kill the snails, releases copper into the tank. If it's a poison, why is it going in the tank. And if the person is thinking of going Saltie in the distant future with this tank, it's doomed. Once copper is in, it's in. And then, if they ever want shrimp or any other invert in the tank from here on in, they may not die instantly but they will die a premature death.
geofied
06-26-2007, 6:21 PM
You probably already know that Dwarf Puffers are great at wiping out snails and hunt them doggedly. I am constantly importing snails to the tank with the DP since he wipes them out.
One of the best ways I've found to "catch" them is to set a petri dish (or similar) with an algae wafer on the bottom. Lots of snails congregate on the dish and you pull the dish out at some point. It's a trap, just in slow motion. This certainly won't get them all, but it makes a large dent in their population.
John N.
06-26-2007, 7:38 PM
Snail eradication via
1) Predation and introduction of loaches, puffers
2) Bait, trap, and remove via lettuce leaf and manual removal
3) Clean out the filter regularly as well in during both 1 and 2
-John N.
Mgamer20o0
06-26-2007, 8:30 PM
2) Bait, trap, and remove via lettuce leaf and manual removal
thats what i do. works great. sooner or later they will almost gone.
UCF-Planted
06-26-2007, 8:37 PM
Thanks for the feedback so far. I'm the unwitting victim of this vicious, unprovoked snail attack :headshake2: :banhim: :lol:. But seriously, I didn't QT or treat the plantsin any way, so I hold nobody responsible but myself, and I'm not too broken up about it. Galen is awesome to start this thread up to help me out with it though :) .
The tank is 10 gallons, with only Otos and plants at the moment. Right now there is no feeding going on in the tank at all, Otos are feasting on my dying BGA, so no risk of overfeeding. I'm adding Malaysian Trumpet Snails intentionally later this week, so no using chemical killers. I've only seen 3 of the little fellas so far, so I'll just squish them as I see them for now. Interesting that DPs should be mentioned, because I am receiving both DPs and Guppies later this week. This tank is supposed to be a guppy farm, providing fry (food) for my Firemouths, and another tank is supposed to get the DPs. Should I leave the pond snails alone and feed them to the DPs in the other tank? I just don't want them eating the plants, not concerned about snails on principal or anything like that.
Dangerdoll
06-26-2007, 10:19 PM
the pond snails aren't going to eat the plants and it may be a good idea to harvest them for the DP's however I will say this, you need to keep a heavy farm in order to keep those little guys eating good. I wound up getting mine to eat bloodworms because of the lack of snails and the toughness at some points to get them.
geofied
06-27-2007, 1:10 AM
Should I leave the pond snails alone and feed them to the DPs in the other tank? I just don't want them eating the plants, not concerned about snails on principal or anything like that.
I certainly wouldn't be concerned about them eating the plants, I have hundreds of them and haven't seen any sign of damage thus far. If you are worried, maybe pull them from your guppy tank and put them in a medium jar with some plant trimmings and some gravel if you care to. They will reproduce in the jar and you can observe to see if there is any damage to the plants/trimmings, other than deterioration of course.
One of the best things about snails is they help clean the substrate and process leftover food so it can turn into plant ready food faster. Some folks hate them, but often I think they become a scapegoat for other issues in peoples tanks. Oh, and they do munch on algae too, so they can't be all bad.
soobie
06-27-2007, 1:16 AM
My Maylasian trumpet snails totally outcompeted the pond snails. I started with a sizable herd of pond snails, added ONE trumpet, and a few months later, the tank had zero pond snails and a managable herd of trumpets. Fine by me, I like the trumpets better because they stir up the gravel.
geofied
06-27-2007, 1:19 AM
the pond snails aren't going to eat the plants and it may be a good idea to harvest them for the DP's however I will say this, you need to keep a heavy farm in order to keep those little guys eating good. I wound up getting mine to eat bloodworms because of the lack of snails and the toughness at some points to get them.
Amen. I can barely keep up with my one Dwarf Puffer's appetite for snails. DP's can be picky eaters, but my little fella will eat frozen bloodworms now, as well as frozen brine shrimp. He definitely prefers live brine and worms, and of course snails. I thought he gobbled up my ghost shrimp when I first got him a couple of months back as they all vanished shortly after putting him in the tank. But now I'm not so sure what happened. I got some new ghost shrimp to give my DP a little scampi treat, but after a month, they're still there. Maybe he decided he doesn't like them anymore. I can wager that if I put some cherries in there he'd get a taste for shrimp again, though...
BTW, it's like watching Mutual of Omaha when you first see a DP hunt and kill a snail. Pretty brutal actually, I had no idea they were so vicious... *BAM*
I actually feel bad dropping the unsuspecting little buggers in the tank, but figure it happens so fast they don't know a thing.:eek:
geofied
06-27-2007, 1:25 AM
Oh I forgot, there is a person over on the Dwarf Puffer forums that feeds his DP's nothing but snails. I believe he uses MTS's though, since they are pretty exposed when they are out-and-about. I haven't the nerve to give my DP any MTS's yet, considering that I paid for some a couple of weeks back. Maybe if they explode like soobie mentioned it won't be such a big deal.
UCF-Planted
06-27-2007, 9:05 AM
Awesome advice all. Thanks. I'll keep an eye on the snails and, barring any plant munching, I will keep them around to be a treat for my DPs, hopefully not enough population to be the sole food for the DPs. Thanks again for the great plants galen.
galen
06-27-2007, 10:07 PM
Awesome advice all. Thanks. I'll keep an eye on the snails and, barring any plant munching, I will keep them around to be a treat for my DPs, hopefully not enough population to be the sole food for the DPs. Thanks again for the great plants galen.
good advice here in this thread. to expand the field of solutions, read this as well:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/general-planted-tank-discussion/48725-how-exterminate-pond-snail-population.html
your welcome ucf!